Dogen ZenjiAt the very moment of sitting, what is sitting? Is it an acrobat’s graceful somersault or the rapid darting of a fish? Is it thinking or not thinking? Is it doing or not doing? Is it sitting within sitting? Is it sitting within body-mind? Is it sitting letting go of sitting within sitting, or letting go of sitting within body-mind? Investigate this in every possible way. Sit in the body’s meditation posture. Sit in the mind’s meditation posture. Sit in the meditation posture of letting go of body-mind.
My very own nature ~ Trulshik Rinpoche
Trulshik RinpocheThe primordial ground, the great, ever-pure primordial emptiness,
Which is free from all elaboration and change,
Is the very nature of uncompounded and self-arising awareness:
Bless me so that I may recognize the view, my very own nature.
Right here and now ~ Tenzin Palmo
Tenzin PalmoWhat do people think spiritual development is? It’s not lights and trumpets. It’s very simple. It’s right here and now. People have this idea that Enlightenment and realization is something in the distance – a very fantastic and magnificent happening which will transform everything once and for always. But it’s not like that at all. It’s something which is sometimes so simple you hardly see it. It’s right here in front of us, so close we don’t notice it. And it’s something which can happen at any moment. And the moment we see it, there it is. It’s been there all the time, but we’ve had our inner eye closed. When the moments of awareness all link up – then we become a Buddha.
Enlightenment poem ~ Xiangyan Zhixian
Xiangyan ZhixianOne stroke dissolves knowledge,
Struggle no longer needed.
I will follow the ancient path,
Not lapsing into quietude.
Noble conduct beyond sound and form –
No trace anywhere.
Those who have mastered the way
May call this an unsurpassable activity.
Song of Compassion ~ Shabkar
ShabkarAvalokiteshvara, mighty Great Treasure of Compassion,
From my heart I invoke your blessing.
By this blessing, may compassion be born in my mind
And the minds of all beings under the sky.If a man has compassion, he is Buddha;
Without compassion, he is a Lord of Death.With compassion, the root of Dharma is planted;
Without compassion, the root of Dharma is rotten.One with compassion is kind even when angry;
One without compassion will kill even as he smiles.For one with compassion, even enemies will turn into friends;
Without compassion even friends turn into enemies.With compassion, one has all Dharma;
Without compassion, one has no Dharma at all.With compassion, one is Buddhist;
Without compassion, one is worse than a heretic.Even if meditating on voidness, one needs compassion as its essence.
A Dharma practitioner must have a compassionate nature.Compassion is the distinctive characteristic of Buddhism.
Compassion is the very essence of all Dharma.Great compassion is like a wish-fulfilling gem.
Great compassion will fulfill the hopes of self and others.Therefore, all of you, practitioners and lay-people,
Cultivate compassion and you will achieve Buddhahood.May all men and women who hears this song
With great compassion benefit all beings!
There is no gap ~ Dogen Zenji
Dogen ZenjiAll-inclusive study is just single-minded sitting, dropping away body and mind. At the moment of going there, you go there; at the moment of coming here, you come here. There is no gap.
Possessing the view of realization ~ Padmasambhava
Padmasambhava“Mind” is discovered to be without something outside or inside. It does not have someone that looks; it is not the act of looking. It is experienced as a great original wakefulness without center or edge, an immense all-pervasiveness that is primordially empty and free. This original wakefulness is intrinsic and self-existing. It is not made right now, but is present within yourself from the very beginning. Decide firmly that the view is to recognize just that! To “possess confidence” in this means to realize that like space, mind is spontaneously present from the beginning. Like the sun, it is free from any basis for the darkness of ignorance. Like a lotus flower, it is untainted by faults. Like gold, it doesn’t alter its own nature. Like the ocean, it is unmoving. Like a river, it is unceasing. Like Mount Sumeru, it is utterly unchanging.Once you realize that this is how it is [and stabilize it], that is called “possessing the view of realization.”
Thinking about the consequences of our collective actions ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaWhen many other people join in a trend, we are less likely to look beyond the pack to think about the consequences of our collective actions, but actually we should think more. This becomes particularly acute in the twenty-first century, when technology further intensifies the reach of such collective actions.
No modification ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheWhen you travel in an airplane, you can see all sorts of landscapes below — lakes, mountains, lush forests, deserts, cold and warm places. Likewise, during meditation, experiences of all kinds pass before your mind’s eye. At that time, the most important thing is to avoid any kind of clinging.
Don’t proudly think that these are “good” experiences and “Now I have realized the Great Perfection!” Neither should you be discouraged by “bad” periods of practice and feel like giving up meditation altogether, telling yourself, “I’ll never succeed.”
Let the mind remain in its completely natural, uncontrived state. Be like a newborn baby in its cradle. Even if surrounded by threatening armies wielding swords, the baby has no fear. In brief, there should be no modification of the natural state.
Contemplating the defects of samsara ~ Padampa Sangye
Padampa SangyeThink from time to time of all the defects of samsara;
People of Tingri, that will make your faith become much clearer.
Staying with the discomfort of a situation ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronDifficult things provoke all your irritations and bring your habitual patterns to the surface. And that becomes the moment of truth. You have the choice to launch into your lousy habitual patterns, or to stay with the rawness and discomfort of the situation and let it transform you.
Buying into emotions ~ Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche
Dzongsar Khyentse RinpocheSiddhartha was also trying to cut suffering at its root. But he was not dreaming up solutions such as starting a political revolution, migrating to another planet, or creating a new world economy. He wasn’t even thinking about creating a religion or developing codes of conduct that would bring peace and harmony. He explored suffering with an open mind, and through his tireless contemplation Siddharta discovered that at the root, it is our emotions that lead to suffering. In fact they are suffering.
One way or another, directly or indirectly, all emotions are born from selfishness in the sense that they involve clinging to the self. Moreover, he discovered that, as real as they may seem, emotions are not an inherent part of one’s being. They are not inborn, nor are they some sort of curse or implant that someone or some god has thrust upon us.
Emotions arise when particular causes and conditions come together, such as when you rush to think that someone is criticizing you, ignoring you, or depriving you of some gain. Then the corresponding emotions arise. The moment we accept those emotions, the moment we buy into them, we have lost awareness and sanity. We are “worked up.”Thus Siddhartha found his solution — awareness. If you seriously wish to eliminate suffering, you must generate awareness, tend to your emotions, and learn how to avoid getting worked up. If you examine emotions as Siddhartha did, if you try to identify their origin, you will find that they are rooted in misunderstanding and thus fundamentally flawed.
All emotions are basically a form of prejudice; within each emotion there is always an element of judgment.
No longer inhibited by ego ~ Bhante Gunaratana
Bhante GunaratanaA liberated person will indeed be generous and benevolent, but not because she has been conditioned to be so. She will be so purely as a manifestation of her own basic nature, which is no longer inhibited by ego.
No fresh air ~ Pema Chödron
Pema ChödronWe think that if we just meditated enough or jogged enough or ate the perfect food, everything would be perfect. But from the view of someone who is awake, that’s death. Seeking security or perfection, rejoicing in feeling confirmed and whole, self-contained and comfortable, is some kind of death. It doesn’t have any fresh air.
The best way to love oneself ~ 17th Karmapa
17th KarmapaSome people find it hard to see their own inner beauty. They wish to learn to be kinder to themselves but do not know how to go about doing so. I would say that in being loving and affectionate towards others, you can discover affection and kindness towards yourself. The best way to love oneself and care for oneself is to love others.
Just open space ~ Chögyam Trungpa
Chögyam TrungpaFundamentally, there is just open space, the basic ground, what we really are. Our most fundamental state of mind, before the creation of ego, is such that there is basic openness, basic freedom, a spacious quality; and we have now and have always had this openness.
Like two expressions on the same face ~ Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheSamsara and nirvana are like two expressions on the same face, one dark and sullen, the other light and smiling. But, whatever the expression, we are not talking about a different face. It is not degraded when smeared with the dirt of samsara, neither is it improved when the dirt of samsara is washed off. Samsara and nirvana remain within the expanse of the absolute nature in the same way that the universe with its different continents all appear in space.
Essential Mahamudra Verses ~ Maitripa
MaitripaTo innermost bliss, I pay homage!
Were I to explain Mahamudra, I would say—
All phenomena? Your own mind!
If you look outside for meaning, you’ll get confused.
Phenomena are like a dream, empty of true nature,And mind is merely the flux of awareness,
No self nature: just energy flow.
No true nature: just like the sky.
All phenomena are alike, sky-like.That’s Mahamudra, as we call it.
It doesn’t have an identity to show;
For that reason, the nature of mind
Is itself the very state of Mahamudra
(Which is not made up, and does not change).
If you realize this basic reality
You recognize all that comes up, all that goes on, as Mahamudra,
The all-pervading dharma-body.Rest in the true nature, free of fabrication.
Meditate without searching for dharma-body—
It is devoid of thought.
If your mind searches, your meditation will be confused.Because it’s like space, or like a magical show,
There is neither meditation or non-meditation,
How could you be separate or inseparable?
That’s how a yogi sees it!Then, aware of all good and bad stuff as the basic reality,
You become liberated.
Neurotic emotions are great awareness,
They’re to a yogi as trees are to a fire—FUEL!What are notions of going or staying?
Or, for that matter, “meditating” in solitude?
If you don’t get this,
You free yourself only on the surface.But if you do get it, what can ever fetter you?
Abide in an undistracted state.
Trying to adjust body and mind won’t produce meditation.
Trying to apply techniques won’t produce meditation either.See, nothing is ultimately established.
Know what appears to have no intrinsic nature.
Appearances perceived: reality’s realm, self-liberated.
Thought that perceives: spacious awareness, self-liberated.
Non-duality, sameness [of perceiver and perceived]: the dharma-body.Like a wide stream flowing non-stop,
Whatever the phase, it has meaning
And is forever the awakened state—
Great bliss without samsaric reference.All phenomena are empty of intrinsic nature
And the mind that clings to emptiness dissolves in its own ground.
Freedom from conceptual activity
Is the path of all the Buddhas.I’ve put together these lines
That they may last for aeons to come.
By this virtue, may all beings without exception
Abide in the great state of Mahamudra.
At liberty to come or to go ~ Hui Neng
Hui NengWhen our mind works freely without any hindrance, and is at liberty to ‘come’ or to ‘go’, we attain Samadhi of Prajna, or liberation. Such a state is called the function of ‘thoughtlessness’. But to refrain from thinking of anything, so that all thoughts are suppressed, is to be Dharma-ridden, and this is an erroneous view.
Happiness and suffering ~ Padampa Sangye
Padampa SangyeHappiness and suffering, through a mechanism like the sounding of a lute’s body and strings,
People of Tingri, are produced when actions are combined with necessary conditions.